President Talon has led Benin since 2016. While credited by supporters for economic reforms and growth, he has faced domestic criticism over measures opponents describe as consolidating power ahead of the 2026 presidential election. Under Benin’s current timeline, Talon is expected to step down in April 2026. State officials say the government remains in control and urged the public to resume normal activities.
Regional organizations quickly condemned the attempted takeover. ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) expressed support for Benin’s constitutional order, and the African Union denounced the mutiny and called on all actors to respect democratic institutions.
The failed coup attempt takes place against a broader backdrop of instability across West Africa. The region has seen multiple military takeovers in recent years, including in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea, as well as fresh unrest in neighboring states. Analysts note that Benin is also under pressure from escalating jihadist attacks in its northern departments linked to Islamic State and al-Qaeda-aligned groups operating in the Sahel.
Benin has not experienced a successful military takeover since its transition to democratic rule in 1991. Sunday’s events underscore both the continued vulnerability of coastal Sahel-adjacent states to coup contagion and the growing security strain created by cross-border insurgent violence.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth giving the seldom seen, and even more rarely lived through, Double Knife Hand. Image Credit: AFP
Hegseth Under Fire for Yemen Strike Details on Signal
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is catching heat from the Pentagon’s inspector general after a report found he used Signal on a personal phone to share sensitive operational details about U.S. strikes in Yemen. The watchdog’s bottom line is simple: whatever your intent, you do not pass strike timelines and aircraft details over an unapproved commercial app when American crews are about to fly into hostile airspace.
According to the IG report and multiple outlets that reviewed it, Hegseth sent information on March 15, 2025, in a Signal group chat roughly hours before U.S. aircraft conducted strikes against Houthi targets. The material included timing and force-package specifics that U.S. Central Command had classified at the time. The IG did not accuse Hegseth of deliberately leaking secrets, and it acknowledged that as Secretary of War he has authority to declassify information. But the report says the data was still treated as classified and operationally sensitive when he hit send, and putting it on Signal created avoidable risk.
The investigation also ran into a very modern problem: Signal’s auto-delete feature. Because many messages were set to disappear, the IG had limited recovery options and had to rely on partial records and screenshots already in the public domain. Reuters and the Guardian report that some of the evidence came from a transcript and screenshots that surfaced earlier this year after a Signal thread about Yemen strikes was mistakenly sent to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, who later published what he received. That error is now part of why the report reads like a warning label for every senior leader with a smartphone and a sense of urgency.
Hegseth has pushed back hard. He says the report amounts to “total exoneration,” argues he did not share anything that endangered troops, and notes that he can declassify material when needed. Critics in Congress are not buying it. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner has called for Hegseth to resign, saying the behavior shows poor judgment around national security. Other lawmakers are pressing for clearer rules and tighter enforcement for senior officials.
The IG’s recommendations focus less on hanging one guy and more on fixing a wider problem. The report calls for stronger training for senior leaders on what belongs on approved channels, what does not, and how to handle fast-moving ops without turning Signal into a shadow command net. In plain Army terms, the standard is the standard. If captains and squad leaders get smoked for sloppy OPSEC, the front office does not get a free pass because the contact is “high level.”
Bottom line: Hegseth is still in the fight politically. The Signal report is a dent in his armor, but as one crusty old NCO put it, Pete doesn’t leak classified information. Classified information leaks Pete.
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Evening Brief: Hegseth’s Signal Storm, Benin Coup Try, and Lockheed’s Hypersonic Push
Three quick hits this evening: Lockheed just fired up a new Huntsville hypersonics lab to speed Army strike programs, Benin swatted down a coup attempt when most of the army stayed loyal, and back in D.C. Pete Hegseth is catching shrapnel for allegedly pushing Yemen strike details over Signal like OPSEC is optional.
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